The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

PARLIAMENTARIANS yesterday agreed to a resolution allowing the government to move forward with a $77 million Inter-American Development Bank loan to complete New Providence’s road works.

The work, which will be completed by the end of the month, was originally estimated to cost taxpayers $112 million. However, final estimations expect the project to hit $206 million because of massive cost overruns, State Minister of Finance Michael Halkitis said.

The Minister said the loan will only satisfy inefficiencies of the work, but does not repair damage to businesses adversely affected by the challenges during the project. The government will soon announce its plan, he said, to offer assistance to the businesses that were affected.

“With justification,” said Mr Halkitis, “this project has struggled to gain the full support from the public, in particular, residents and businesses in areas directly impacted. The responsibility for this failure is distributed among the government, the supervisors, and executors of the  civil works component of the initiative.

“However, I can confidently say that a lesson has been learned and concrete steps have been taken recently to improve the communication to all stakeholders with respect to the project, but with emphasis on the civil works component.”

He cautioned that undertaking huge projects like infrastructure development should be strategic.

“While we would all agree that improvement to infrastructure is vital to the economic and social success of any nation, we must be equally mindful that large scale projects that impact the livelihood, notwithstanding for short periods of the masses must be carefully executed. 

“Strategies must include the voice of the public and information on project execution should be transparent,” he said.

The government, Mr Halkitis said, is now tasked with ensuring that the 15.7 miles of newly repaired roads are maintained.

“We must take the necessary steps to achieve the goals of this project. This would include reforming our public transport system and developing capacity in traffic management in the Road Traffic Department.

“Also refocusing the public works department so that it can design and execute a comprehensive maintenance programme for this and the other infrastructure investments which the government has made must be prioritised,” Mr Halkitis said.